Roller Coaster Ride
by Butterfly Hippie
Summary: After becoming dangerously ill, Jadzia lies in the Infirmary, hallucinating about the life of a human teenage girl in 2006. Better than it sounds. Read and review!


Chapter 1

Jadzia Dax laid her head on the console in front of her and groaned. Kira Neryes looked over in concern.

"Tough day, huh?" she asked sympathetically. Jadzia raised her head from the console a few inches to reply.

"It's not that, exactly. It's more like I feel like I feel I just got run over by a truck. I can't concentrate on anything today. It's like my brain has gotten fogged over." Kira swiveled her chair to look at Jadzia in concern. The rest of the people around them continued working at their consoles, unaware of the dilemma between the two freinds.

"Come to think of it, you don't look so good." Jadzia groaned again, this time in frustration.

"What the hell is wrong with me! I haven't felt this tired since the day I got the Dax symbiont from Curzon." Jadzia Dax was a Trill, a human host for a worm-like symbiont. The Dax symbiont had had many previous hosts, and Jadzia contained the memories of them all. It was a tough burden sometimes, but she made it through.

"Maybe you should go to Julian. You really don't look good." Kira suggested. Dr. Julian Bashir was Deep Space Nine's chief medical officer, and a friend to all. He had also had a crush on Jadzia since the minute he had set eyes on her. That crush had diminished over time into a strong friendship, but Jadzia suspected that he still had some feelings for her.

"Nah. I'm sure it's nothing." she answered stubbornly. But inside, she wasn't so sure. A pounding headache created a steady rhythm behind her eyes and forehead and her entire body ached unbearably.

"On second thought, I think I'm going to go back to my quarters and take a nap." Jadzia rose swiftly from her chair only to nearly collapse as a wave of dizziness came over her. Kira caught her just before she hit the floor.

"Woah. Are you sure you're okay?" Jadzia nodded.

"Yeah." she lied. She wasn't at all sure she was okay. The only thought on her mind at the moment was getting to her quarters.

Halfway down the corridor, another wave of dizziness engulfed her. The floor of the ship seemed to buck and roll under her feet. Her quarters were only a little ways ahead of her.

_Just a little farther_, she thought desperately, _just a little farther, then you can lie down and everything will be okay. You'll feel better; just get to your quarters._

She never made it. She crumpled under the effects of the illness and was unconscious before she hit the floor.

Captain Sisko, Dr. Bashir, and Major Kira stood in a crowd around Dax's bed in the Infirmary. The young woman lay on the bed, still unconscious, and her Trill spots stood out against her pale skin. Several machines beeping softly around her were the only sound in the room. After a long while, Captain Sisko spoke quietly, so as not to disturb the peaceful atmosphere.

"Doctor, do we have a diagnosis?"

"No." Julian sounded frustrated. "I've tried every test I can think of. Her fever's sky-high and her neural readings are off the charts, but aside from that, she's fine! I just can't understand it!" The exhausted doctor had been working all day, and this was pushing him to the breaking point. "All I know is that if we don't figure out what this bug is soon, it's going to kill her."

Jadzia awoke to a crowded hallway. _Well, maybe **awoke** is the wrong word_, Jadzia thought, it was more like coming out of a trance.

"Jadzi...Jadzia!" a voice was saying. Jadzia shook herself out of the trance to realize that she was sitting on a tiled windowsill. Children buzzed and ran all around them, some were standing at metal lockers that stretched down the hall. And beside her was someone who strangely, from the back anyway, looked like...

"Nerys?" Jadzia asked slowly. The girl turned around, and Jadzia's heart sank. It wasn't Nerys, after all. But it was a girl who looked uncannily like her, almost exact, only with slightly longer hair and no nose ridges. She also did not wear Kira's traditional earring. Instead, small gold hoops dangled from her earlobes.

"Nerys?" The girl sounded confused. "Jadzi, you know how much I hate my first name. It's _Kira_, remember?"

"Oh. Right." Jadzia said, and it was true she remembered now. This girl was Nerys Marline, better known by her middle name of Kira. She was Jadzia's best friend.

_How did I know that! _Jadzia thought frantically. She was Jadzia Dax, a Trill who worked as a science officer on the space station Deep Space Nine. Yet, she felt she was also Jadzia Iris, an ordinary human girl going to high school. It was almost like she had two memories in one body. She was somewhat used to this, being a joined Trill who had had many hosts over time, but this felt completely different. This wasn't the symbiont reminding her of past hosts. This was something else entirely. Suddenly, she slid off the windowsill and examined her reflection in the mirror. She stifled a scream. Her Trill spots were completely gone, and she didn't look anything like Jadzia Dax at all. This girl had long black hair, and deep brown eyes. This girl was someone else.

"Jadzi?" Kira asked nervously. "Are you okay?"

"Kira," Jadzia started urgently. "This may sound weird, but I need you to answer a question for me. _What year is it_?"

"Jadzi..." Kira said, frightened. "You're scaring me."

"Answer my question!" Jadzia demanded.

"Okay, okay...it's 2006, Jadzi, 2006." Then Jadzia knew for certain that she was nowhere near DS9 anymore. She let out a long piercing scream that went on and on into the silent hallway.

A/N: I know, I know, really crappy first chapter. But it'll get better, I promise! I just gotta get into the rhythm of things. Just please, review! If I don't get at least one review, I won't update, at least not for a long time. Reviews inspire me. So please, make my day and review!


End file.
